Sep 08, 2021 21:00:00

How are the 'rocks' that appear in the game created?

In recent years, 'depiction of rocks' has become so important in 3D games that there are game developers who

travel overseas in search of cool rocks. American news media Vox explains how the '3D model of rocks' used in 3D games is created.

How video game rocks get made --YouTube


The movie starts with a person who shoots rocks in a vast rocky mountain in Utah, USA.

This person is Gale Davis, producer and evangelist of

Quixel , who provides a 3D asset library. Quixel became part of Epic Games in 2019 and is known for bringing a number of high-quality assets to Epic Games' game engine, Unreal Engine.

Quixel is sending photographers to the rocky mountains to capture high resolution scans of the rocks. High resolution scanning of rocks is considered important in evolving video games and all 3D art.

Davis says he often visits the area called

Hurrah Pass in Utah, mainly for rock scanning.

The Hurrah Pass is a 90-minute drive one way, and the road is unpaved and you'll probably fall off a steep cliff.

Of course, there is no outlet that can be charged, so if you use up the battery you brought in, shooting will be forcibly ended.

This time, Davis came to look for a rock with a different world atmosphere to use for a technical demonstration of Epic Games.

Taking high-resolution photos of the targeted rocks, with occasional changes in angle, one of the key tools in doing so is the sunshade tent. By shooting in the tent, I try not to make the difference between light and dark too strong.

Equipped with a battery pack on the back side to extend the shooting time.

In addition, a scale marker that points to the dimensions will be placed near the target so that the approximate size can be grasped from the photograph.

The software reads the pictures of the rocks taken in this way and joins the pictures from various angles to create a 3D model.

Such 3D model creation software has a function to grasp the whole picture by superimposing the common parts of the subject in multiple photographs.

This process applies not only to rocks but also to rock walls. In the case of rock walls and valleys, drones are used for shooting.

Davis says it is difficult to select a location during actual shooting. 'There are places where I feel' oh, it feels good 'when I'm walking, but when I think about whether it's a place where I can actually use it, the first impression quickly fades. In most cases, time is the constraint.' So even in an era when software is left to create 3D models, time is a challenge.

The 3D model of the canyon created in this way can be found by searching for 'canyons of Utah' in '

Bridge' of Unreal Engine.

In addition to the method of capturing real-life images, there is also the method of creating a 3D model from scratch. There used to be a time when you used to draw rocks with pixel art, but ...

Today, there is dedicated software for 3D modeling.

These 3D modeling software can also handle textures and 3D models downloaded from the marketplace. The 3D model provided in the marketplace

contains data called a normal map (normal map) , which is a 3D-like shape such as unevenness or groove of an object, converted from the XYZ coordinate system to the RGB color system. increase.

With Epic Games' 3D model creation assistance tool '

Capturing Reality ' for smartphones, it is also possible to make 3D models of stones taken in a nearby park.

In addition, there are useful services such as the high quality public domain 3D model asset distribution library

Poly Haven.

It seems that the 3D model of the valley shot by Mr. Davis

was used for the demonstration movie of Unreal Engine 5 , and Epic Games provided high quality 3D model assets by bringing Quixel under its umbrella, and its high quality 3D We are trying to improve the quality of games created with Unreal Engine 5 with model assets and appeal to developers.

For this reason, a person like Mr. Davis, who is not a geologist, goes to the rocky mountains to take pictures.